Smith, Martin Cruz (novel); Dennis Potter (screenwriter); Michael Apted (director); Lee Marvin, William Hurt, Brian Dennehy (starring)
Gorky Park (Original screenplay, actor Lee Marvin's leatherbound presentation copy with associated ephemera) Los Angeles: Eagle Associates / Orion Pictures, 1983. Third Draft script (and Final Shooting script) for the 1983 film, "Gorky Park," based on the 1981 novel by Martin Cruz Smith. Actor Lee Marvin's leather-bound presentation copy from director Michael Apted and producer Howard W. Koch, Jr., bound in maroon leather, with Marvin's name in gilt at the bottom right corner of the front board, and with two notable pieces of associated ephemera: (a) a Typed Letter Signed from Apted, Koch, and producer Gene Kirkwood on production stationery for the film, reading "Dear Lee / Please accept this gift as a momento [sic] of the time we all spent together on GORKY PARK," and (b) an attractive greeting card from Apted and Koch, with a note in holograph ink referring to the shooting location for the film, which reads, "Welcome to Moscow! We're glad you're here! / Best / Howard and Michael." On the rear of the envelope is a holograph pencil notation in Marvin's hand reading, "From Howard Koch upon arrival in Finland." And accordingly, the shooting location for the film was Finland, not Moscow, as "Glasnost" had not yet taken effect. In the film, a very faithful rendering of Cruz-Smith's Cold War novel, Marvin plays a Armand Hammer-style American businessman who is playing hell with Soviet police inspector William Hurt in a mystery that is not so much a "whodunit" as a "whydunit." An underrated and appropriately bleak entry in the Cold War cinema genre by the versatile director Apted. Maroon leather with gilt titles and rule, with matching glossy endpapers. Title page present, with credits for screenwriter Potter and novelist Cruz-Smith. 133 leaves, photographically reproduced. Pages and binding about Fine. From the estate of Lee Marvin.
[Bookseller: Royal Books, Inc.]